Jed York on the 49ers’ $200M stadium allocation from the NFL, nothing tangible with the Raiders, and more

* ESPN.com’s Mike Sando reports that 49ers exec Gideon Yu was approved as a minority investor. I reported a while ago that Yu and Boston Celtics LP Mark Wan were coming on asseparate 1% investors in the 49ers. I think both are officially co-owners now.

According to an NFL source, Yu and Wan purchased the 1% shares for $8.5M apiece, putting a value of $850M on the 49ers franchise–interestingly, the same total as the stadium financing project. I also believe that Yu has an option to buy up to 5% over a period of time.

The 49ers getting official approval from the NFL on a $200M allocation for the stadium project in Santa Clara is a big deal, no doubt.

A cool $200M never hurts anything, like I always say.

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It was also relatively a slam-dunk–ever since the NFL and NFLPA put language in the new CBA last summer that provided for stadium money (it basically removes the money from the revenue split), the 49ers were destined to get a big chunk.

They got it today. Which is certainly miles better than not getting it.

Jed York got on a conference call to talk about this, and some other issues, and I listened but didn’t ask any questions, because I think this was all fairly clear–except the Mark Davis/Raiders talk.

THAT was interesting, and telling: York said that the 49ers got the NFL money without any discussion of the Raiders sharing the building, which had, until recently, been a major part of the NFL’s thinking.

And York said he worked out with Mark Davis earlier today, and had lunch with him, but said that they didn’t really talk about anything except football.

Folks, now that the 49ers are locking up financing without Raiders involvement, the chances of the Raiders sharing a Santa Clara are almost nil.

The only way the 49ers were going to contemplating sharing a new stadium with the Raiders is if they couldn’t get the money any other way. They’re getting the money.

And I don’t think Mark Davis is very interested in sharing a stadium, anyway.

—–Snippets from the JED YORK conference call/

(I cut out the conversation about the prices of the seat licenses at this point… York and the 49ers deserve to get asked pointed questions about the HIGH pricing, but season-ticket-holders were always going to take a price hit in this. Never was a doubt about that.)

-Q: How much of a shot in the arm is getting this $200M?

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-YORK: This is something that the owners worked on to put together the G-4 facility. We’re obviously very thankful for the hard work and the support.

But this is a big step fo the 49ers big step for stadium development in California. We haven’t had a football stadium built in California for decades.

This is going to be a big thing for everybody.

-Q: Were there any strings attached involving sharing the stadium with the Raiders?

-YORK: There are no stirngs attached. But obviously, the deal that was approved by the city of Santa Clara, the term-sheet that we have with the city of Santa Clara allows for this to be a two-team building. That has not changed.

We have not had any meaningful conversations with another team about that. But have had high-level conversations with the Raiders just to let them understand what this projects looks like….

But there were not strings attached to the NFL approval.

-Q: Have you had recent conversations with Raiders?

-YORK: We’ve had conversations with them. It’s been ongoing for the past five or six years. But there hasn’t been anything meaningful in terms of a partnership or some type of joint venture.

-Q; Have you met with Mark Davis?

-YORK We worked out together at the JW Marriott before the meeting this morning. Had lunch together… we’re staying at the same hotel in Indy.

It was very casual conversation, just lamenting the fat that we aren’t playing in the game more than anything else.

-Q: Is it significant that the NFL kicked in $200M instead of the $150M figure that was floating around?

-YORK: It’s a different program, so the G-3 program was exhausted (which had the $150M per team limit). The G-4 program is different than what was there in the past.

Obviously, this is the most support financially the NFL has ever given to one single team. The Jets and Giants had $300M in support for both teams in a shared building.

This is obviously an unprecedented day for the San Francisco 49ers and this is a very big vote of confidence form the league.

-Q: Does the agreement say that the NFL kick in more if the Raiders are there, too?

-YORK: That was not part of the agreement and that wasn’t discussed.

-Q: What’s the next hurdle to breaking ground?

-YORK: Ground-breaking hopefully will begin soon. We’re doing a lot of site make-ready work now. But now it’s the construction, making sure we get shovels in the ground and start building.

-Q: So are you saying this will be done by 2014, is that the schedule?

-YORK: 2015 is definite and we are hopful if things go well we will have a ’14 opening.

But 2015 is a certainty. If anything we’d like to exceed our own expectations and we’re going to work as hard as we can to make that happen

“season-ticket-holders were always going to take a price hit in this. Never was a doubt about that”

That doesn’t make it right, and yes there never a doubt to anyone paying attention to the evil seat license rip-offs that have been going on for decades now, but I can tell you that for at least ten years EVERY time anyone anywhere near me at Candlestick has complained about the ‘Stick or wished for a new stadium I have warned them that it was going to be far worse than they expect, and they rarely believed me. But of course I was right, and now everyone is in shock and really, really angry.

Maybe they shouldn’t be shocked, because rich people taking non-rich people’s money every way possible and telling them it’s for their own good is nothing new, but it’s still wrong.

A “price hit” meaning super expensive tickets, doubled or tripled from Candlestick? That sucks but it’s fair enough. Personal Seat Licenses? $20,000, $50,000, $80,000? Bogus and evil and no way to justify it, no rational answer that makes it right, except that people are dumb enough or addicted enough to buy them.

Of course it’s all really about being able to scalp the tickets, from the top down. Who do you think buys most of those licenses? Professional scalpers have the money; they buy the license, they own the seats and they control the stadium.

The owners hate that the scalpers get so much more for the tix then they do so they sell the licenses, get their taste of the scalp on the front end with the license fee, and then they get more on the back end by allowing scalping on their own official scalper sites and getting a fee from that.

It’s evil in, evil out.

The super-rich just getting richer. I guess it’s all they have to do.

The only question for me now is if they are going to take away my seat at Candlestick if I don’t pay their ridiculous extortion fee now?

That they won’t tell me.

http://www.robertphoenix.com dominmatrix

Don’t forget that Facebook just hatched 1,000 millionaires today. Don’t think the Niners are unaware of the stupid money down in the valley.

In fact, they’re counting on it.

bob

sorry old 50 yard line season ticket holders. there will now be new 50 yard line season ticket holders and that will be the very rich and corporations who will buy them up

Mr. Amateur

Twinkie D,

For all intent and purposes Niners have been down the for years. Only exception being a handful of Sundays at Candlestick which isn’t really part of SF like Kesar was.

The players, coaches, and admin workers all live in South Bay. Santa Clara perfectly situated for transportation and they will be in the middle of Silicon Valley. Much larger population base and they don’t have to deal with SF political tape.

Re: Raiders. I live in Oakland and am a Raiders fan and sadly must admit they’re better off in LA truth be told. Not that I want them to move…

milo

So the NFL socialist cartel will aid the public purchase of a $1bil stadium to be used 10x a year by a private corporation. Yeah, that’s 1% Romney country. Take from the poor and feed the rich. Pure baloney.

The citizens of Santa Clara got duped. They thought they were popping for $150m…but somehow $700m got added to the tab. D’oh!!!

http://www.robertphoenix.com dominmatrix

Milo,

Master bait-and-switch. That’s what’s happened.

http://www.raidernationpodcast.com Randy

From what I’ve read, the $200 Million from the NFL isn’t a gift, it’s a loan. How does a loan, that the 49ers would have to pay back all by themselves (if they don’t get the Raiders as a partner) make it unlikely that they would want to share expenses with the Raiders? If the Raiders shared the stadium, wouldn’t they have to share in the repaying of the loan? Wouldn’t this make things easier financially on the 49ers? After all, the stadium will cost a Billion dollars or more, won’t it? How does a $200 Million loan make things so easy on them?